Summer Honey!

A couple of weeks ago, some Mark Trail Summer Camp campers and I worked with Mr. D and his family on our second honey extraction.  We were able to extract almost 5 gallons of honey (which works out to almost 60 bottles).

The honey is delicious!







We will be selling our honey for $8 a bottle. All the money goes back into the Bee Stangs experience for our bees, hives, students and members of the community.

If you would like to purchase honey please send me an email.

More Honey Havest Photographs

More Mill Springs Bees Photographs

First Honey Extraction

Our first round of honey! A couple of days ago we were able to extract a small amount of honey from the hive that survived the winter. It is delicious!

Such a neat process.

More photos below.

Honey Flow Photos

Bee Stangs (Mill Springs) Photos

Back in Bees Nest

After a short winter hiatus the Mill Springs bee keepers are back in bees nest. Over the winter, with the help of a winter learning construction seminar, we moved and expanded the Mill Springs Apiary. The new apairy is in the new garden down on the field.



In the new space we have added 3 new hives and a nuc(like a back up hive)! We now have 4 total hives! One from last year and 3 new.

The Novus hive survied the mild winter and is full of bees. It looks to be doing great.



The new bees arrived about a week ago. A few thousand bees arrived in a wire box on the back of a truck. Mr. D and I drove to pick them up. When we arrived, the bee deliverer handed us our bees and checked off our name. We loaded 5 boxes of bees(like the one below)into the back of Mr. D's highlander and drove about an hour to show them their new home.





The bees were very happy to be in their new homes. The process is pretty easy. Open the hive, pull out the queen and put her in the new hive, gentle dump a few thousand bees into the hive and let the growing begin!





The rest of the bee delivery photos, new bee delivery.

The old bee club photos, Mill Springs Bees.

Where is the queen?

We had our 3rd meeting of the Bee Stangs last Thursday. We inspected the hive, cleaned the hive and fed the bees.

We were able to look at almost every frame.

No stings!








New Pictures


Mill Springs Bees

Rule number 1: Don't freak out! (Bee Stangs)

Last Thursday was the first meeting of the Bee Stangs here at Mill Springs Academy. We had several students participate.



Everyone was very excited! They dressed up in the bees suits, pulled frames to look for the queen and fed the bees.

Rule number 1: Don't freak out! We had a couple of moments, but they were handled very well. It went something like this,

"Hey Michael."

"Yes"

"All of these bees are freaking me out."

"Okay. What's rule number 1?"

"Don't freak out."

"That's right. Just walk away slowly and go relax for a minute."




Enjoy the photos!


Mill Springs Bees Photographs

The Beard

Last night I attended the Metro Atlanta Beekeepers Association monthly meeting at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. It was very interesting and educational. The speaker came to the meeting from North Georgia. Check out her site, Mtn Honey.

Also check out the Metro Atlanta Beekeepers Association Site.

One item of discussion was the temperature of the hive. Bees work hard to maintain a certain temperature inside the hive. In the summer, when it gets hot, the bees work to cool the hive. They accomplish this a couple of ways. One way the bees cool the hive is by flaping their wings to act like a fan. Another, is by getting water and basically spitting it into the air while flapping their wings to act like an air conditioner.

A third way to cool the hive is called bearding. The bees go outside the hive and sit on the outside of the hive box to remove their little body heat and cool themselves off.

Ours are bearding.



Listen out for the buzz around campus this year. We will be starting our Bee Club this fall. More information coming!


Mill Springs Bees

Swarm Success

Yesterday we went out to check the hives. It looks like we now have 2 hives in our garden.

The old hive must have a new queen. We did not see her, but we did see where she had laid eggs.

The old queen is also laying eggs, in the new hive box.

Lots of little bees in both hives. And each hive has more bees than it did 5 weeks ago after the swarm.

Check out the swarm video below. Turn up the volume.




Mill Springs Bees